MtGox price: $160 to $270 to $212 to $290 to $199 to $250 in the last hour
bitcoinwisdom.comThis is probably because of a rumor that some small withdrawals have been going through but baring an announcement from the company of a full resumption I wouldn't be jumping on this bandwagon. Problem is no one has any proof what is being seen on the block chain is anything except Gox moving coins around internally. Maybe even to manipulate people. There is another thread of discussion about how it's obvious none of the problems have been fixed.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ymb4r/some_light_o...
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ymwzj/mtgox_still_...
The reason I submitted this is because it's an interesting phenomenon that fortunes can be lost or made so rapidly.
(An MtGox bitcoin can currently be sold for 0.4 bitcoin, so this was quite a lot of money being lost or made over the last hour.)
Well, fortunes can be made at a roulette table too. And watching the price investing in bitcoins is on par with roulette.
Lost AND made. Every loss is someone's gain. :)
Not so with assets. If you value your Bitcoin at $1000 today and tomorrow it is worth $800, you have lost money and no one gained it.
You can short on various exchanges, so as the market price drops, lots of people make a lot of money.
Even without shorting, as market price moves downward, it is only a loss for those holding. Those who got out at $950, and bought back back in at $800 have increased their holdings - as price fluctuates in the future, they increase their leverage.
Finally, you are focusing on fiat which is a tunnel-visioned approach. When BTC/USD drops, for those already in fiat it gives them more buying power. This is a gain, as yesterday they only had 1 BTC worth of fiat, and now they have 1.2BTC worth of fiat.
So it all depends on perspective, and you are right in your view. However there are many ways of looking at things, and my view isn't necessarily right either. I would say they are all valid examples though, of different ways of looking at it. Much harder to say which is "right".
Well BTC went down 20%, but since 80% of my portfolio is non-BTC, my BTC equivalent went up 20%!
Reality is you just lost quite a bit of money, but it makes it sound positive. Not that you automatically make these mistakes, but it is trivial to do that when letting your other currency float.
I am not sure if this statement is correct or is likely in grey area. The person who sold it to you has gained $200 if they choose to buy now.
I don't like to let the non-fiat float, it makes it possible to say anything.
"Your BTC is worth 80% of what it was before, but since you are only 20% invested in BTC your BTC value has gone up 20%!"
how do you sell or buy a mtgox bitcoin?
When Magic The Gathering Online Exchange was at $1200, it meant that bitcoins were at $1200. When they dipped below $100, it didn't count because: ...?
Can someone explain this?
When bitcoin was around 1200 on gox, it was around 1150 on bitstamp, and 1100 on BTC-e... Similar with smaller exchanges as well. There was efficiency in the market, and that is important.
It has been months now since Gox separated from all other markets. First their value was hundreds higher than all others, but no one really cared because it was irrelevant - you can't withdraw fiat, and bitcoin was having trouble getting out too.
Then Gox value went below, and it was concerning so price on other exchanges were affected, but Gox was still irrelevant because their problems are unique to them, and not anything inherent with bitcoin. All withdrawals are shut down, and their last update said there's no news since the last update, and it didn't state when or if they would provide the next update on progress.
Also, your statement implies a consensus in market perception. Please don't take that from whatever the media is saying. Or whatever people on the internet are saying. Take it from the data - look at what the market is saying on exchanges, with their money. Most people don't care what the price is no Gox, and other exchanges are actively trading hundreds of dollars higher.
That's not really fair to say, since people did frequently point to their issues with fiat pushing it up
they are more or less cut off from the larger bitcoin economy at this point, since you can't transfer bitcoins in or out.
People no longer believe gox is likely to pay out the coins they owe to users that had money in the exchange
Serious people in the know have been ignoring the Gox price for the better part of the past year.
Yes, because nowhere else it is being sold at that price.